Grim, dark, stark and disturbing. These are just a few words that are often used to describe Martin Scorcese films - and Taxi Driver made in 1976 is no exception.
Taxi Driver tracks the plight of Travis Bickle, a man struggling to come to grips with the degradation of the fiber of society. Travis, with torturous memories of his past, is a lonely and confused man. Desperate for human contact but still unable to overcome his paranoia, Travis seeks to escape from this misery by working as a cab driver during the nights and meeting his fellow cabbies at a coffee joint or watching porn flicks in the day.
This however only adds to his pain as he fails to identify with his aimless fellow mates and worse still, encounters all the scum of the city be it the countless pimps, hustlers, muggers or street punks. Thoroughly shaken, Travis finds solace in Betsy, a campaign worker for a Presidential Candidate, Charles Palantine. However things don?t work out and this throws Travis deeper into gloom. A chance encounter with a young prostitute Iris, roughened up by her pimp Sport, makes him realize that he is powerless to adapt himself thereby forcing him to cleanse what is happening around him.
Martin Scorcese at the helm does full justice to Paul Schrader’s power packed script. Narrating the story entirely through Travis? eyes, he paints a picture epitomizing all that is wrong with New York. Scorcese wonderfully brings out the transformation from a Travis who is dispassionate on hearing one of his passengers’ detailed plans for killing his philandering wife to a Travis who is fixated with ’’setting things right’’.
Scorcese manipulates the viewers to see things only from Travis’ perspective - the movie seldom deviates to other POVs and even when it does quickly returns back - so much so that we actually do not hate the guy for all his frailities. In one of the film’s finest moments (and most widely written too) Travis looks at himself in the mirror and sneers ’’You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? Well I’m the only one here.’’
What makes Taxi Driver an absolute classic is that besides the brilliant script and adept direction, the movie is elevated to dizzy heights by a chilling portrayal from the incomparable Robert De Niro. As the deranged Travis Bickle trying to desperately cope with his dark inner self and the surrounding filth, De Niro comes up with a truly arresting performance.
Starting off as a recluse, as events unfold De Niro effortlessly morphs himself into the skin of an obsessive (bordering on manic) change agent. Watch out for the scene when he practices using all his firearms. Check the scene when he explains to Iris that she has to ’’turn the corner’’. In fact, he is there in almost every frame of the movie and that by itself is reason enough to see this movie.
Jodie Foster as Iris, the 12 year old who has run away from home and taken refuge under prostitution, is competent though I am not convinced this was a performance worthy of an Oscar Nomination. Among the rest, Cybill Sheppard as Betsy, Harvey Keitel as Sport and Leonard Harris as Charles Palantine offer valuable support. The movie also boasts of some stand-out technical work too.
Cinematography of Michael Chapman gives one the creeps as he palpably builds up the tension with long drawn shots and eerie angles. Check the grim shots of the taxi meter ticking, the red and blue neon lights in the sidewalks symbolizing the decadence of life on the streets and the murky corners where the pimps and hustlers operate from. Editing by Tom Rolf and Melvin Shapiro is first rate.
Music by composer Bernhard Herrmann is positively riveting and suits the mood (that?s a jolly understatement) - the use of subtle jazz to convey the seedy New York surroundings is haunting. To add a dash of poignancy, this was also Herrmann’s last score and he was deservedly nominated for an Oscar though he did not win it.
Taxi Driver was nominated for the Oscars in four categories - Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Musical score but it failed to win even a single Oscar. There is no doubt in my mind that Scorcese definitely deserved to be nominated under Best Director. Robert De Niro was also unlucky not to win the Best Actor award but this will undoubtedly go down in history as one of the finest performances ever.
Don?t miss this one. Strongly recommended for anyone who is an admirer of good cinema.